I really wanted to go to Universal Studios but I was already taking too much PTO for the rest of the year. Harry Potter World, butterbeer, those overpriced wands that make silly things happen in the park. There were so many reasons to want to go!
Then I had the solution. Why not go for a weekend? This would take a lot of planning and coordination. Maybe I’d be tired Monday. But I’d be able to go to Universal Studios without having to take additional PTO! Perfect plan.
This post will go into how I planned the trip and how I leveraged my credit cards (both points and benefits) to maximize my weekend at Universal Studios.
Day 0 – Getting There
I flew from Denver to Orlando. I must admit, I ended up taking a half day on Friday to catch my 3:30pm flight… but that’s not as bad as taking the whole day off. Fortunately the flight was only three and half hours long.
For this flight, I had leftover travel funds from canceled Covid trips so I used that up in addition to $100 on my Amex Platinum. That ended up getting covered by my airline credit.
Flights out of pocket: $0
$100 Amex Platinum Airline Credit
$203.98 Southwest Travel Credits
We got to our hotel at around 9:30pm, realized we had forgotten to eat dinner, then grumpily ate some granola bars before falling asleep. We had an early day the next day!
Night 1 – Hyatt Place Across from Universal Orlando Resort
The first night we stayed at Hyatt Place Across From Universal Orlando Resort. This hotel is really nothing to write home about. The biggest selling point is that it is, in fact, right across from Universal Studios. It’s less than a mile as the crow flies but about 1.5 miles if you were to drive or walk.
We had an incredibly rude host check us into the hotel. For some reason, I was under the impression that there was a restaurant at the hotel. He looked at me with a condescending look and said “no, but there’s a TGIF in the next parking lot over.” No, thank you. Not even if I’m starving am I going to a TGIF.
He “thanked” me for being a World of Hyatt Discoverist (which I got through my World of Hyatt card) and gave me a bottle of water. Over the top service here!
The only reason I booked this hotel was because we literally just needed somewhere to stay the night. I thought about staying two nights in the same hotel. But the second hotel was way pricier and we were not going to be able to enjoy it since we were just going to sleep. So we decided to use our 8,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points, transfer them to Hyatt, and stay at Hyatt Place for the night.
Another amazing redemption from Hyatt.
Hyatt Place Across From Universal Orlando Resort: 8,000 points
We went to bed fairly soon after getting to the hotel, knowing that this hotel was going to be the worst aspect of our weekend (and it really wasn’t even that bad). We had to wake up early the next morning to go to Universal Studios!
Day 1 – Loews Portofino Bay Hotel
We woke up bright and early and called an Uber to take us on a seven minute drive to Loews Portofino Bay Hotel. We got there at 7am, checked in, and dropped our luggage off at the front desk before heading off for the day.
Loews Portofino Bay Hotel is meant to look like Italy and I think they did a great job!
Why did we get there so early? Now here is the real trick when it comes to visiting Universal Studios. You have to stay at one of their hotels. Not just any hotel, but one of their three Premier hotels that offers Free Universal Express Unlimited as part of the stay. Below are the three Premier hotels and their descriptions on the Universal website:
There is also Loews Sapphire Falls Resort which gets your early access into the park, but not Free Universal Express Unlimited. It’s considered a “Preferred” hotel rather than a “Premier” hotel. You can see that reflected in the lower price per night.
You really want to get the Universal Express Unlimited, especially if you’re only going for a weekend. You need to maximize your time actually being on rides, eating at the Leaky Cauldron, and waving your overpriced wands at random things in the park. It’s completely worth it and to me the best way to do this is to stay at a Premier hotel.
Plus I wanted to maximize my Amex Platinum benefits which includes the $200 hotel credit for hotels part of Fine Hotels and Resorts or The Hotel Collection. Fortunately, Loews Portofino Bay Resort is part of Fine Hotels and Resorts and Sapphire Falls is part of the The Hotel Collection.
Here’s how the prices and hotel benefits looked when I compared them.
| Amex | Cash Price | Benefits |
| Portofino (Premier) – 1 night (what we ended up doing) | $887 – $200 hotel credit = $687 | $200 hotel credit Free express pass Early admission Free breakfast $100 dining credit 12pm check-in when available, 4pm check out Upgrade when available Can walk to Universal, water taxi available |
| Portofino (Premier)- 2 nights | $1,775 – $200 hotel credit = $1,575 | $200 hotel credit Free express pass Early admission Free breakfast $100 dining credit 12pm check-in when available, 4pm check out Upgrade when available Can walk to Universal, water taxi available |
| Sapphire Falls (Preferred) – 2 nights | $830 – $200 hotel credit = $630 | $200 hotel credit $100 hotel credit Water taxi to resort Early admission Need two nights for perks No express pass |
| Other hotels | Cash Price | Benefits |
| Hyatt Place – 2 nights | N/A – 16,000 points | N/A |
| Costco Hyatt House – 2 nights | $1,134 | Includes park passes ($700 value, no express pass) |
| Royal Pacific (Premier) – 2 nights | $1,412 | Free unlimited express pass, early admissionCan walk to Universal |
| Hard Rock (Premier) – 2 night | $1,685 | Free unlimited express pass, early admissionCan walk to Universal |
Total: $687 for one night at Loews Portofino Bay Hotel
And of course, the cost of each of the different passes.
There are three parks as part of Universal Studios with the following rides:
- Universal Studios Florida – generally more movie and TV show focused
- Diagon Alley
- Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts
- Despicable Me Minion Mayhem
- Men In Black Alien Attack
- Revenge of the Mummy
- ET Adventure
- Fast and Furious Supercharged
- Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit
- Simpsons Ride
- Transformers The Ride-3D
- Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon
- The Simpsons Ride
- Islands of Adventure – generally more for thrillseekers
- Hogsmeade
- Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
- Flight of the Hippogriff
- Ollivanders
- Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure
- Jurassic Park River Adventure
- Caro-Seuss-el
- Doctor Doom’s Fearfall
- Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls
- One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
- Popeye and Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges
- Ptarandon Flyers
- Skull Island: Reign of Kong
- Storm Force Accelatron
- The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man
- The Cat in the Hat
- The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride
- The Incredible Hulk Coaster
- Volcano Bay – water park so I’ve never actually been here and don’t care to list out the rides
Note: Both Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure have the Hogwarts Express which goes between the two parks.
Islands of Adventure is newer and more ride-focused compared to Universal Studios Florida so I find it a little more fun.
There are three types of passes:
- 1-park passes – allows you to get into one of the parks which you pre-select
- 2-park passes – allows you to get into two of the parks which you pre-select
- 3-park passes – allows you to get into three of the parks
The 2-park ticket is really important to get. I went to Universal Studios before, cheaped out and got the 1-park ticket, and I wasn’t able to ride the Hogswarts Express between Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade as those are in two different parks. That was a really sad and disappointing realization.
Note that there are two types of Express Passes for each type of park:
- Universal Express Unlimited Pass – Skip the regular lines at most rides and attractions as many times as you want
- Universal Express Pass – Skip the regular lines at most popular rides and attractions once per ride
These are also available as the 2-park (which I recommend) or per individual park. Note that the price is different depending on which park you choose (if doing a 1-park pass) and what day you use the pass (true for all Universal Studios tickets).
So as you can see, getting four Unlimited Express Passes (two days for two people) costs around $700. That’s how much I ended up spending for a night at Loews Portofino Bay Hotel with the hotel credit. With that price I got four(!) free Unlimited Express Passes, free breakfast the second morning), plus the $100 dining credit at Mama Della’s that second night.
Total for two 2-day, 2-park passes: $701.98
Early admission is also available through the Universal Studios hotels. This is generally only available if you are a Preferred or Premier Annual Passholder.
Like I mentioned before, we got to Loews Portofino Bay Hotel at 7am. It’s important to check in early so they can set you up with the Unlimited Express Passes and you can hit the park an hour early with the early admission benefit. That means getting there right when it opens at 8am so you can get access to the early access rides.
Here are the rides that are open at early admission (all currently at Islands of Adventure):
- Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
- Flight of the Hippogriff
- Jurassic World VelociCoaster
- Ollivanders
- Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure
We took the water ferry(!) from the hotel to the park. We spent the first day at Islands of Adventure because I knew that’s where most of the Harry Potter rides were. We went on every ride, then most Harry Potter rides a second time. In the afternoon, we took the Hogwarts Express between the parks and checked out Universal Studios Florida for a while. My highlights included Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey and Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. (There’s a twist with Hagrid’s ride and it was so much fun to be surprised!) The only downside was the incredibly long line for Hagrid’s ride – it took us about an hour and a half and that’s the first ride we started with.
For food, we had lunch at The Three Broomsticks where we had shepherd’s pie, bangers and mash, butterbeer ice cream and of course, more butterbeer.
Before dinner we had a drink and enjoyed some live music at The Thirsty Fish just downstairs from a hotel room. That was definitely one other nice aspect about the hotel. There are plenty of bars and restaurants that you can just walk to from the hotel since the whole hotel is a small plaza of sorts.
Dinner was at Mama Dellas which was a short walk from the bar. I had chicken parmesan and my wife had lasagna. We met up with a couple friends who live in Florida and daughter and shared a couple bottles of red wine. They spent the day at Disney World and we exchanged stories about our day. Great company and a great way to finish our first night at Universal!
Day 2 – Loews Portofino Bay Hotel
We had a quick buffet breakfast at Trattoria del Porto. It was fine but it gave us enough energy to get started with our day. We checked out at the front desk and dropped our luggage off with the luggage check before taking the water taxi back to the park.
We started our second day at Universal Studios Florida. These rides and experiences were primarily focused on movies and TV shows. My favorite rides were Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts and Men In Black Alien Attack. Pretty soon we had done all the rides at Universal Studios Florida so we took the Hogwarts Express back to Islands of Adventure to do the Forbidden Journey and Hagrid’s Magical Creatures again. This time, Hagrid’s had maybe a half hour wait (pro tip: go in the late afternoon rather than first thing in morning) so the line moved a lot faster than yesterday.
We skipped lunch since we were so full from breakfast but had dinner at Mythos. It was an okay dinner, definitely not as good as the Three Broomsticks the previous day. We got a mezze platter, a Mythos Signature Lamb Burger, and 12oz bone-in pork chop. The prices were a little high for what it was. But it was a nice ambience at this mythological (like the name implied) themed restaurant.
We walked back to the hotel from the park which took about 15 minutes once we actually left the park grounds. We grabbed our luggage and called an Uber to the airport. Man were we exhausted! But we had so many good memories of the weekend and all we had to do was get home.
Our flight was at 10:55pm and with the time difference, we were able to get back home by about 2am.
Conclusion
Total: 8,000 points + $1,389
Hyatt Place (1 night): 8,000 Points
Loews Portofino Bay Hotel (1 night): $687
Two 2-day, 2-park passes: $702
Pretty good for a weekend at Universal Studios!
Not going to lie, Monday at work was rough. We were both sleep-deprived and exhausted from a busy weekend. But looking back at all the pictures even now makes me so happy. It took a lot of planning and forethought. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat.